US stocks rise amid signs of revived 'meme stock' craze
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Wall Street stocks climbed early Monday ahead of key US inflation data as shares of GameStop skyrocketed in a move that sparked talk of a revived "meme stock" craze.
Shares of GameStop soared more than 85 percent, while AMC Entertainment jumped 18 percent in moves that recalled a 2021 stock market frenzy led by traders exchanging tips on Reddit.
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Near 1445 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent at 39,575.62.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 percent at 5,226.55, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2 percent to 16,377.72.
The GameStop jump came after one of the key figures in the "meme stock" investor movement, Keith Gill, posted on X, the former Twitter, for the first time in three years under the "Roaring Kitty" account.
The meme stock phenomenon, which emerged at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, was later turned into the Hollywood film "Dumb Money," in which actor Paul Dano portrays Gill.
The dynamic "suggests that the meme stock craze could be back," said a note from Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
"However, we think that traders might approach this craze with a little more caution compared with 2021."